The Real Reason Why Tiger Woods Ruined The Golf Business Forever

The New York Times posted
a preview of this Sunday's magazine, including with a huge
piece on the "Tiger Woods Bubble."

Reporter Jonathan Mahler examines why Tiger Woods is essentially
a "classic economic bubble." His good ol' boy athlete image roped
in sponsors, advertisers, media attention, merchandise, even
golf-course developers to a desperate industry. Golf became so
attached to the Tiger brand that
The Great Undoing unraveled the industry along with him.

Tiger's scandal could not have been revealed at a worse time --
and now even his
return to the Masters might not save it.

The PGA Tour is at a critical juncture. Next year it will begin
negotiating new TV contracts with CBS and NBC. In the meantime,
the tour is trying to secure sponsors for 10 events in 2011 while
economic conditions are not exactly favorable. Two of the
hardest-hit industries, financial services and car manufacturing,
are responsible for underwriting a third of the PGA Tour’s
sponsored events. More to the point, the entire economic model of
a golf tournament is looking a bit suspect. At the moment, the
value of a company’s flying clients and employees to a sunny
locale to drink Grey Goose cocktails and get tips on their short
games from professional golfers is most likely to be lost on many
of its shareholders. In other words, drumming up new sponsors and
increasing — or just maintaining, really — the worth of its TV
deals would have been hard enough for the tour even if the
world’s greatest golfer and most recognizable athlete had not
become enmeshed in the biggest tabloid story in years.